LUMBERTON — Lumberton's goal of becoming the state's very first certified retirement community is on track, according to the woman working to coordinate the collaborative effort.

Lynda W. Parlett, who serves as director of Grants & Sponsored Programs at Robeson Community College, has been busy for more than a year working with city, county and state officials on this quest.

"I am so fortunate to be working with the Chamber of Commerce, its board of directors, the city of Lumberton, and Robeson County," she said. Parlett offered a status report on the retirement community program to the Lumberton Rotary Club at its luncheon on Tuesday.

In July 2008, Lumberton was picked as the guinea pig in a pilot program to attract retirees to North Carolina.

Officials with the North Carolina Department of Commerce, in conjunction with the Second Career Center of Robeson Community College, were charged with leading the implementation of the North Carolina Certified Retirement Community Program.

The goal is to attract the attention of retirees and soon-to-be retirees, to get them to consider making their new homes in North Carolina towns.

North Carolina is only the sixth state in the nation to adopt a retirement community certification program, but the idea is catching on.

Parlett knows the benefits a retirement designation can have after she traveled to Mississippi to visit and collect information about its state program.

Parlett and the Lumberton Area Certified Retirement Community Committee are awaiting the formal, complete application form from the state, still under development by the Department of Commerce.

"Just as soon as we can complete the application document, Lumberton will be ready to proceed with our marketing," Parlett said.

The CRC committee — part of the Lumberton Area Chamber board of directors — plans to initiate a fund-raising campaign to pay for print and online marketing materials and a part-time director for the program.

"We are aware that about 12,000 baby boomers in the country turn 50 daily and that more than 400,000 people annually move to another state upon retirement, providing a tremendous pool of prospects for our program," Parlett said. “... We plan to concentrate our efforts in the northeastern U.S. in areas with a reasonably stable real estate market ensuring the retirees an opportunity to liquidate property for relocation."

Printed brochures, online resources and compact discs will be developed as will print, radio and TV advertisements.

The program will include permanent signs identifying Lumberton as the state's first Certified Retirement Community at prominent locations along Interstate 95 and other thoroughfares.

Parlett said the Fayetteville Observer had editorialized about the venture, saying Lumberton may have bitten off more than it could chew, and she can't wait to take a photo of the first sign on I-95 and send it to the editor.

"We know what an excellent investment this will be based on the economic impact study of the program in Mississippi after its first 10 years of operation," said Parlett.

Some of that success story includes:

— The Mississippi CRC program, begun in 1995, led to the certification of 21 communities and within 10 years was responsible for the relocation of nearly 6,000 retiree households to the state.

— An economic impact analysis in 2006 found that approximately $194 million annually was entering the Mississippi economy through the program.

— The median annual income of the relocating retirees was $33,000 and 80 to 90 percent of that income was spent locally for goods and services, while the average of liquid assets was $320,000.

Targeting 30,000 households in the northeastern U.S. in the first year of marketing the program, with about 1 percent making at least one visit to the Lumberton area and the subsequent relocation of just 10 households, will result in the addition of $330,000 in annual income, $3.2 million in liquid assets and the creation of an equivalent of nearly six jobs to the local economy, according to Parlett.